All posts for the month February, 2016

Update: If there is more interest in beanies, I would like to put in another order for more. I need to take orders for at least a dozen hats, preferrably two dozen. However, the bonus is the possibility of doing custom colors in both hats and stitching (see an example here). Email me if you are interested!

We still have a couple of months worth of cold weather left this winter and many snowy winters yet to come. For those who want to keep warm and sport some Mount Shasta pride, I made a series of beanies with the Hike Mt Shasta logo on them. The beanies are really warm and cover the ears really well. The Hike Mt Shasta logo is centered with the mountain’s name underneath. I left the URL for the site off of the hats, for what that is worth. The hats come in black, gray/black, a grayish blue and I have one hat left in sky blue. Also, if there is enough interest in the hats, I can make another order of them with custom colors in both the hat and the thread that stitches the logo. I am selling them for $12.00. If you are interested in getting one, find my email here and let me know!

The Yosemite Park And Curry Company logo.

I think it is worth noting that the logo for Hike Mt Shasta is intended as a homage to the classic Yosemite Park And Curry Company logo that has been ubiquitous in Yosemite National Park for decades. Having grown up immersed in the park and its lore, the logo was around me constantly as a child and it has always had a lot of appeal to me. I especially love its clean lines and simple presentation of an iconic peak. I had tons of stuff with that symbol on it, from sierra cups with it stamped on the bottom of the cup to maps and T-shirts. When it was time to design a logo for the website, there was never any consideration for anything other than a tribute to Yosemite’s great logo. Thankfully my friend Jeff Summers, who is a gifted graphic designer and artist, came through for me and was able to come up with exactly what I had in mind. He is responsible for many awesome shirts and designs around Siskiyou County, including the Mount Shasta shirts I made! I think it is a simple, classy way to promote Mount Shasta and still pay tribute to a place that has philisophical connections to this area.

The Mount Shasta region is justly famous for its grand mountains. Though somewhat overshadowed by the rugged nature of the terrain, the area is also known for its excellent rivers. Wild and beautiful, these rivers flow through deep canyons and wide valleys, complementing the deep power of the mountains with beauty, grace, energy and a power all their own. The Sacramento, California’s largest and longest river begins in the mountains just west of Mount Shasta and makes the first steps of its long journey within sight of the great volcano. The McCloud River begins its journey east of Mount Shasta but flows near the foot of the mountain, its beautiful waterfalls complementing the mountain perfectly. The Shasta River flows north through the Shasta Valley. Almost its entire journey is within sight of the mountain. The Trinity and Klamath Rivers are a little further away and neither flow right around Mount Shasta but both fall within the peak’s orbit and add a great deal of beauty and recreation to the region. Click to enlarge the galleries.

Sacramento River

Mossbrae Falls

Mossbrae Falls

The confluence of the Sacramento and Castle Creek. Castle Dome on the far right.

The confluence of the Sacramento and Castle Creek. Castle Dome on the far right.

Castle Dome and the Castle Crags from the Sacramento River

Inside the Box Canyon of the Sacramento

Box Canyon of the Sacramento River

Mount Eddy at the Sacramento River inlet.

2016

Where the seasonal bridge once stood there is now a nice cataract.

Cascade on the South Fork of the Sacramento

Mount Eddy from the headwaters of the North Fork of the Sacramento River.

I had not planned to follow up my last post with yet another perspective on the changing landscape at the Sacramento River’s inlet into Lake Siskiyou. However, the other day I was fixing something on the Lake Siskiyou Trail page and noticed that one of the images was of the inlet area from the north shore side of the trail. It depicted the inlet almost exactly three years ago. Not only had the south channel not been blocked up at that time, but the grabions, the large rock-filled cages that formed the foundations for the bridges across the river, were still intact and visible in the image (thanks to John Schyuler of the Mount Shasta Trails Association for cluing me in to the proper name for these structures!). Knowing how dramatic the changes have been, I was compelled to return to the same spot I had taken the earlier image and document what the area looks like now. I was glad I did. Even though I was fully aware of how much had changed, it was still shocking to see it from the perspective of the previous image.

Having some context for what things used to look like, it is evident that the river has not changed its course so much as it has actually washed out nearly have of the entire inlet flood plain. To gain some perspective on the image, I added red dots that are useful markers to identify position in both pictures. There are also bright green dots just above the grabions (see the gabions with the old bridge placement here). Here are the images unmarked. Click on them, then you can scroll back and forth to compare them:

2013

2016

The amount of material that has been moved is incredible. Large amounts of river rock has been deposited from upstream while smaller, loose aggregate has been cleared out and is presumably settled on the bottom of the lake. Where the Lake Siskiyou Trail once traveled the along the lake’s high water mark between the river’s old south channel and the north channel, the river now flows past a continually eroding 8 foot high embankment. A couple hundred yards of the trail are simply gone. Last year’s floods wiped out the old bridge location but left most of the trail intact. This year is quite different. With the water level still so high, it remains to be seen what the actual, final (at least for this year) path of the river will be and what areas will need to be bridged in order to complete the loop around the lake.

The annual placement of the temporary bridges is still a few months away so the loop around the lake is incomplete. However, for those looking for a long hike and an adventure, it is possible to ford the Sacramento River and do the entire loop. The water level is high and close to the main stem crossing would be quite dangerous. Closer to the lake the river now fans out over the eroded flood plain so much that most of the multiple channels are only ankle or calf deep. The wide dispersal area makes it a fairly easy matter to cross as long as you are willing to get your feet wet. Interestingly, two channels are developing on the new flood plain. There have always been two channels here but the smaller of the two was little more than overflow most of the year. Now it has become a bona-fide path for the river in its own right. Still, 90% of the river’s volume remains in the main channel.

The Sacramento River is one of the great features of the Mount Shasta region. It is a scenic mountain river that races through deep canyons and rocky channels. The uppermost section of the river is often overshadowed by the lower section that is recognized as a great fishing stream and kayaking run, as well as for its waterfalls. I contend that the uppermost section offers fantastic recreational opportunities as well and is the most scenic (save for the Box Canyon, of course). In addition to the fun that can be had and the beauty that can be enjoyed, this part of the river presents an unusual opportunity to witness nature’s power to change the landscape.

Ten months ago I reported on the Sacramento River’s efforts to change its course upstream from Lake Siskiyou (read the reports here and here). The changes were dramatic. Prior to the winter of 2015, the river had divided into two channels about 0.25 miles upstream from the inlet to the lake. Consequently, the Lake Siskiyou Trail was required to bridge to small rivers rather than a single flow. Despite the drought, the river managed to gather enough fury during one of the seasons few hard rains to close off access to the southern channel and forcing all of the water into the northern channel. The trail engineers who designed the Lake Siskiyou Trail had anticipated this eventuality to some degree and had installed removable bridges on permanent foundations. This would allow the bridges to be pulled during the winter and spring so that no damage would be done. However, this year, since the river was so low, the bridges were left in place so hikers, runners and bikers could enjoy the trail during the unusually light winter. What they had not anticipated was the bottling up of one of the river’s channels and the concomitant increase of water in the other. Yet this is what happened and the northern bridge, as well as its foundations were lost as the river completely altered the landscape. Interestingly, the bridge on the now dry southern channel was left untouched and intact. Thankfully another bridge was acquired and when the water level dropped, the single flow of water was bridged and the Lake Siskiyou Trail was uninterrupted again.

The river divides into many streams.

This winter has yielded a lot of precipitation and it should come as no surprise that the river has continued its work to modify the land around it. Like last year, the southern channel remains dry, closed off by rocks and debris 0.25 miles from the lake. Once again the river enters the lake only on the north side of its small flood plain. However, everything along that channel has changed along its final 150 yards to Lake Siskiyou’s high water mark. Where the river maintained a single, primary flow through this final short section last year, it no longer maintains that single course now. Once it passes a knot of large trees, it immediately fans out into four or five divisions that split apart and intermingle with each other. Despite the dispersal of water over a large area, some of these flows remain deep and are dangerous to cross. Others are easily jumped over or skipped across via large rocks. It seems that large quantities of river rocks have been deposited in some areas, especially along the northern fringe of the channel. Other areas have been scoured clean.

In some ways, this change is to be expected, given the increase in the water. However, the surprise is that it has come at the expense of the Lake Siskiyou Trail. A large section of the trail has been washed away as the river eroded the bank away. Where the trail once mad a 50 yard jog to the west, moving away from the lake and toward the bridge that crossed the north channel, now a 10 foot embankment drops down to rushing water. To reach the spot where the bridge was once located, it is now necessary to push through brush and then follow some rocky clearings. Observe the approximate changes on the maps below:

The Sacramento River’s north channel in October 2014.

The light blue is areas washed out in 2015. The dark blue are the areas washed out this winter.

Old bridge foundation.

One interesting feature is the revealing of one of the old foundation pier of the temporary bridges across the Sacramento. The piers were constructed of thick metal cages filled with river rock. The cages gave them shape while the rock gave them support. This remains a great design and both blends into the surrounding landscape while doing the job of supporting the bridge. Last year, it seemed that these were wiped out along with the rest of the bridge. However, it now appears that they remained in place but were buried in large quantities of river rock. This year, as the torrent cleared the area of any loose material, the rocks on top of the piers were washed away and one of the old cages was made visible once again. While this is an excellent design, it seems unlikely that new ones will be built in the near future since the landscape continues to change on an annual basis. I would speculate that now that the river’s entire flow is being funneled through one channel that this process will continue for some time to come. Only when the malleable earth is scoured away will that area achieve some sort of equilibrium. Perhaps then new foundations can be installed. Until then, the Lake Siskiyou Trail will have a little different look each year.

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